


The Breach

by Cloudnine101



Category: Almost Human
Genre: 5 Things, First Kiss, M/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-28
Updated: 2016-02-28
Packaged: 2018-05-23 17:45:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,003
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6124946
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cloudnine101/pseuds/Cloudnine101
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <em>There is nothing Dorian wants more than John.</em>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Breach

_1_

There is nothing Dorian wants more than John. That's a fact. Fact number one.

They're in a crime scene. There are blue sheets hung up around the corpse, which is male and approximately five feet ten inches tall, with brown hair and blue eyes and a muscular build. Dorian knows these things to be a certainty.

John looks across at him. There's something there - a question - what happened here? As if Dorian could know. After a moment, John's eyes flicker away. He walks forwards an crouches beside the body, and his shoulders rise up underneath his shirt. Dorian doesn't want to stop watching him. 

 

_2_

Fact number two: sometimes, Dorian wonders what his life would have been like if he hadn't been John's partner. He might have been assigned to a different force entirely. He might have been somebody else's droid, and they might not have been so kind, or they might have loved him, loved him in the way that he's sure, now, he loves John.

Dorian pays for their coffees at the desk. The cashier is a robot, standard issue. She's handing the drinks out, and she calls his name. Dorian walks forwards. He takes both cups from her hands. She looks away from him as soon as the job is done.

Dorian considers taking a transfer far from the station. He would have to ask John for permission. He decides against it. Would all of this change, anyway? 

Still, though, Dorian watches the people in the cars on the road. There are children holding their parents' hands, and a woman smoking a cigarette, and old men and old women arm in arm - people who have been together for the whole of their lives, and who will - 

"What kept you so long?" John asks, rubbing his hands together. "Do you want me to freeze to death or something?" 

John's wearing a dark shirt and suspenders. He takes his coffee quickly. 

"I was sure you'd survive," Dorian mutters, and sits beside him. John's got a song playing on the radio - it has a slow, heavy melody, which he flicks off as soon as Dorian closes the door behind them. "I didn't know you liked jazz."

John colours. "I've got good taste," he says.

Dorian smiles. "I don't doubt it."

John grits his teeth and turns back to the road. Every so often, his eyes shift across to Dorian. 

 

_3_

Fact number three: John isn't conventionally handsome. His nose is too small ad his eyes are too large, but there's something in the way he carries himself that more than makes up for it.

John's face is covered in bruises and blood. He's staggering forwards, one arm around Dorian's shoulders, the other against the wall. His leg's dragging because it's been broken. Dorian can't think past that. The car is at the end of the alley, and there are other cars there, too, with sirens blaring. Everything is white or grey. Dorian's scanner is starting to fail him. He can hardly see. 

"Way not to draw attention to ourselves," John says, against Dorian's neck. He slips. Dorian hauls him upright. "God _damn_ it, this _hurts_."

"Put your back into it," Dorian says, "we don't have all night."

John huffs a laugh; he says, "Sometimes, I really, _really_ hate you."

Dorian replies that he knows.

 

_4_

Fact number four: John's a top-class jerk sometimes. It's something Dorian's been aware of from day one. 

"It occurred to me," John's saying, "that I never thanked you for, uh, saving my life the other night." He rubs at the back of his neck with one hand.

Dorian waits. "No," he prods, after it becomes apparent that John's clammed up. "You didn't."

John scowls. "Fine," he snaps, "thank you."

"For what?"

"For saving my life, you insufferable piece of - "

"Language," Rudy calls across, and John makes a strangling motion with both hands.  
Dorian laughs. John smiles, slightly, that small, lopsided smile that makes Dorian want to do reckless things. They go out and wind up at a hole-in-the-wall diner, talking about the job and ribbing each other, and Dorian doesn't think he's ever been so content. 

 

_5_

Fact number five: John is kind.

They're on a stake-out, huddled together in the back of the cruiser. John's got the binoculars. He's leaning on the back of the seats, arms in front of him, peering off in the distance. The light from a billboard accentuate the marks on the side of his face. "They're not gonna show," he says, finally. His voice is rasping from disuse and disgust. "Assholes."

"They didn't promise," Dorian points out. "It was never explicitly said - "

" _Damn_ what's said explicitly. Surely everybody can read between the lines!"

Dorian shrugs. "Some can't," he says. "And anyway, people put different meanings to things in their own heads. Nobody can know what anybody else is talking about, really."

John looks at him. His eyes have narrowed substantially. "You been thinking about this?"

Nodding once, Dorian smiles. "I have to do something with my sad, lonely existence. Why not become a philosopher?"

John snorts. As he leans forward, he brushes past Dorian. "If they're not coming down, we're outta here," he says. "Do you wanna head back to my place? 'Cause I'm not going to the lab. Rudy'll get the backlash of my mood."

"I didn't know you cared," Dorian says.

John hits him in the arm, or he tries to. Dorian catches his hand before he can. They're frozen there, with Dorian's fingers clasped around John's wrist. John's breath is smoking. He's swallowing. His heart-rate is elevated.

"Reading between the lines, here," John says, and he kisses Dorian, and brings one hand up to cup his head. Dorian kisses him back. He presses him against the wall. John's arm comes around him, pinning him in place against his chest. "No way in Hell are we making out in this car."

So they go back to John's apartment, and Dorian holds his hand all the way up the stairs.


End file.
